Most companies cannot answer the simple but critical question: Why should your customers do business with you? Often companies lack the clearly demonstrated value needed to compel possible customers to choose them as the vendor of choice. Instead, companies cling to the view that they must strive to deliver all aspects of value to every customer. The impossibility of this destines them to mediocre results at best.
The business best-seller, The Discipline of Market Leaders, outlines how to avoid this risk of under-performance. There are two critically interrelated strategic decisions which all companies must make in order to distinguish themselves in the marketplace.
- First, they must identify who are the customers they are hoping to satisfy and understand what kind of value will delight those customers. While any company must be adequate on all dimensions of value, they must pick only one dimension – best product, best total solution, or lowest total cost – on which to lead. This will be the basis for their value proposition.
- Second, companies must orient the entire way that they do business so as to deliver their chosen value with ease. Winning firms hone their operating model to provide the flawless underpinning to their value proposition.